In November, the European TV channel Arte aired an hourlong documentary, Demain, tous crétins?—Tomorrow, everyone’s an idiot?—on a topic that would seem to be of great importance. It starts with a London-based researcher, Edward Dutton, who has documented decades-long declines in average IQs across several Western countries, including France and Germany. “We are becoming stupider,” announces Dutton at the program’s start. “This is happening. It’s not going to go away, and we have to try to think about what we’re going to do about it.”
[...] It’s wrong to hint that scores on tests of memory and abstract thinking have been falling everywhere, and in a simple way. But at least in certain countries—notably in Northern Europe—the IQ drops seem very real. Using data from Finland, for example, where men are almost always drafted into military service, whereupon they’re tested for intelligence, Dutton showed that scores began to slide in 1997, a trend that has continued ever since. Similar trends have been documented using data from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. At some point in the mid-1990s, IQ scores in these countries tipped into decay, losing roughly one-fifth to one-quarter of a point per year. While there isn’t any sign of this effect on U.S. test results (a fact that surely bears on our indifference to the topic), researchers have found hints of something similar in Australia, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
Are we becoming dumber, as in losing cognitive function, or merely less-well read?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 24 2018, @03:43PM (4 children)
"Live in" != "recently immigrated to". If you meant the latter, that needs to be specified, because your comparison is currently invalid.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Wednesday October 24 2018, @04:58PM (1 child)
Ummm... then I don't want to live in Finland where apparently I get roped into national service (and its requisite IQ test) without even being a citizen.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 24 2018, @05:33PM
S'not what I mean. I mean the way you phrased it, the Asians could have all been there for fifty years or more while the middle-eastern immigrants are mostly more recent. Not a legitimate comparison.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 25 2018, @06:45AM (1 child)
Like Tennessee, you Carpetbagging Son-of-an-anchor-Bro?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 25 2018, @10:16AM
With apologies to the late, great Johnny Cash:
I've been to,
Louisville
Nashville
Knoxville
Omerback
Shereville
Jacksonville
Waterville
Costa Rock
Richfield
Springfield
Bakersfield
Shreveport
Hakensack
Cadallic
Fond do Lac
Davenport
Idaho
Jellico
Argentina
Diamondtina
Pasadena
Catalina
See What I Mean
I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breatherd the mountain air, man
Travel, I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere
My rights don't end where your fear begins.